Long Live the King
by bipbopbev
Summary: When Logan took the throne after his father's death, he was a beloved king, but it didn't last very long. During an expedition to Aurora, he discovered that Albion was under a terrible threat, and in his desperate attempts to save his country, he is branded a tyrant. This is his side of the story. [Mild LoganxPrincess Royalcest]


Long Live the King

Part I

"_I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word. Now in the morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own. I used to roll the dice, feel the fear in my enemies' eyes. Listen as the crowd would sing, 'Now the old king is dead, long live the king!' One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me and I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand."- Viva La Vida, Coldplay_

I stood out in front of the crowd, back straight, chin up, trying my best to appear confident. Such a ruse was hard to achieve when you can feel the weight of a country pushing you down. Despite this, I looked out among the people, MY people, and began to speak.

"You are citizens of Albion. It's noble soil runs through your veins. It's long history is your _own _history...but this kingdom does not exist to support you or to feed you. It is not a fruit to picked off the ground or a tree who's shade will protect you unconditionally. This land of ours demands your sweat, it demands your labor, and it demands your sacrifice."

Whispers could be heard among the bustling crowd, and as I continued, I could see expressions of both fear and anger in their faces.

"We are entering an epoch _full _of opportunities, but full of peril too. Albion needs you to fight with every breath and work with every heartbeat. It will make demands of you and you will obey them, because you are citizens of Albion. You will never defy its wishes and you will never question its intent. You will give every ounce of strength and you will offer your very lives if it asks for them. And even then you will never cease to be as long as Albion lives, then so will you live too."

There was a heavy silence as the ringing of my voice faded away, followed by rising chatter. I turned and retreated back into my castle.

I realized that they were not going to fully understand the intent of my speech, and many people would simply take it as an insult, but I needed to do something. Telling the naive citizens about the true danger that was coming would only cause them to label me a madman, or worse, cause them to start panicking. The last thing this country needed was mass hysteria. However, I had no right to blame them for disbelief. The only way anyone could believe me would be for them to come face to face with what I have seen, and I would not wish that on anyone, not even my greatest enemies. The people would have to rely on my word, but I had not gained enough trust with them to have the luxury of blind loyalty. If they had to hate me, then so be it. I was not about to sacrifice their lives just for my own reputation.

As King, I knew that I was at great risk of assassination, especially at a time where violence seemed to be the only resolution that people could come to. I had to hire more guards. I did not have much of a choice. My sister, at the time, was in no position to be a ruler, and she didn't have the slightest idea of the amount of danger we were all in. Even if, in the event of my assassination, I prepared notes for her about the Darkness (which I did), I had to assume that she would not trust my word. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that she would believe me, but I couldn't take that risk.

It seemed as if only myself and Walter could remember the time when I wasn't labelled a tyrant. In the beginning, I was a fairly good King. I think that the people started to grow tired of my father's rule. He was king for many years..perhaps too many. I often heard people saying that heroes were not meant to rule, they lived for far too long, and being in complete control for that long could drive you mad. I never thought my father was mad, but I knew him differently. I didn't know him as king. I didn't really know him as a father, either. That was Walter's job. My father was more of an example to me, someone I looked up to and hoped to become in the future. I'm glad he didn't have to witness my downfall. He would be proud of my sister, obviously, and I don't have any negative feelings about that..but I hate to think of how disappointed he would be that I failed.

People do not realize the true definition of a tyrant. Tyranny is when a ruler is abusing his or her power, exploiting their control and using it to please themselves. I was willing to sacrifice my life to save my country, and every single ounce of gold I made went to building an army. The only reason I turned to Reaver for help was because I was desperate. Walter warned me about his corrupt nature, but he told me that reaching out to him would be beneficial for our financial future. Walter could tell something was wrong, and whether or not he thought paranoia was my reason for building an army, he decided to trust that I knew what I was doing. As more and more gold filled the treasury, the people began to turn against me. I understood that they didn't know that I was saving their lives, but I couldn't help but label them as ungrateful.

The expedition to Aurora was when this nightmare began. I received word from an explorer that there may be valuable treasures hidden in the deserts of Aurora, a long dead land that had been forgotten for years. I began making arrangements to venture out there with a large number of my soldiers to look for the treasure, but I also wanted to make sure that it really was a dead land. I had my doubts.

The journey to Aurora went well, the sea was calm and we were right on course...but when we got there, I noticed immediately that something felt wrong. I wasn't the only one who felt it. My men agreed that this place felt evil, but we decided ventured on despite our instincts. I was no fool, and I knew that we were going to face a fair amount of danger. That was why I was well armed and accompanied by well-trained soldiers...but I never could have prepared for what we would encounter. None of us could have ever expected it.

After hours of following a seemingly endless shoreline, we arrived at a large cave, which we entered with caution. I was proud of my men for being so brave in the face of pure evil. I could see the fear in their eyes and the sweat on the back of their necks, but they never asked if we could turn back. I hope they noticed my appreciation, because they deserved it for what they went through.

As we travelled further into the cave, we were soon engulfed by pure darkness. I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face. We were unprepared and only had one torch, because Aurora was a desert land, we had not expected to be in an enclosed space. Luckily, we had enough light for us to get a glimpse of our surroundings. We had apparently made our way into some sort of dilapidated temple. Upon inspection, it fit the descriptions of the old temples that the Shadow worshippers had erected, but something told me that something far more sinister had taken place here.

It wasn't long before the blackness started to drive us mad, and my men began to hallucinate, as did I. Black shapes skittering across the ground could be seen, but only out of the corner of your eye. The sensation of hot breath onto the back of your neck, causing you to turn and, only for a split second, see some terrifying creature that vanished before you could even register the face. When you're in a place so dark, every noise is amplified and has you jumping out of your skin. It was obvious that we were not welcome, but for some reason we kept going.

We should have left our pride in that cave and went running back to the ship while we still had the chance.

First, came the bats. It was hard to tell if they were just another hallucination at first, but their bites drew blood. One of my men managed to shoot one down, allowing us to closely examine the creature. These were no normal bats. They were hairless and coated in black slime that left a stain on the stone floor. They were smooth and shiny, and appeared to have no eyes. (You wouldn't have any use for them if your home was in complete darkness.) After numerous attacks, we got to a clearing in the cave where there were no sign of any bats, and we had a brief moment of rest.

Second, came the Shadows. They were the height of an average man, translucent and barely visible, but I could feel their flesh underneath my blade when I struck them. They were relatively weak, nothing we couldn't handle, but they started coming in larger numbers, swarming us like locusts. It felt like whenever we killed one, another two took its place. The first man down was Percy. A good man, father of 3 boys, overwhelmed by 6 of the Shadows. When we inspected his body he had no visible wounds, but it was obvious that he was gone for good. None of us knew what to do at that point. We waited while a few men went see if the way back was clear, but they never returned. We stayed for almost a half hour before we decided that we had no other choice but to find another way out..and that meant going deeper into the cave.

More and more of the Shadows attacked, every group taking down my men one at a time.

Then, it showed itself.

We started to hear the voices before it made its first appearance. It whispered into our ears, impossibly loud, trying to break us down and weaken us. Two men ran off screaming and disappeared into the darkness. They never returned.

It would taunt us, tell us everything we never wanted to hear, showed us images of our families being violated and torn apart.

By the time we reached the center of the cave there were only 5 of us left.

I was the first to see it, and it managed to frighten me to the point where I lost my breath for a moment. It was like it tried to suck the life out of me. I could have never imagined a creature could ever exist and be so twisted and corrupt, and I cannot even think of a way to properly describe it. No words I write will be able to explain how horrifying this creature was.

It called itself "The Crawler", and I watched as its children ripped my men to pieces.

"_**Who made you? Who crafted such slight flimsy forms? You rip like insect wings in our hands. You are tainted. The stain shall never wash out. The sun will never shine upon you again. Tainted...broken little toys...**_"

I ran, following the light until I reached the end of that damned cave. Once I was back in the desert, I thought I was safe. I was in under the sun, out of the darkness...I was away from the echoing voices...but I was alone. I saw a large statue in the distance, and prayed that it was a sign of civilization. The only thing I had left was hope for rescue. I started my journey across the desert, but the hot sun beating down was taking its toll. If I had not experienced what happened in that cave, I would have thought that what happened next was just a hallucination from the intense heat, but it became apparent that The Crawler wasn't done with me yet.

The sky darkened to a sinister shade of purple and the sand under my feet turned to grey ash. I saw my sister a short distance ahead of me, somehow believing that she was really there in the flesh.

"Sister?" I called out, but she gave no reply.

"Sister, can you hear me?" No reply.

She reached out her hand towards me as I approached her, and I took it in mine. Her eyes were black as night.

"Logan.." she whispered, staring right through me. Her voice was..wrong. Something was very wrong. "My king...give in to yourself...brother.."

The desert faded and all I could see was her amongst the darkness as she stared up at me with dead eyes. I had not noticed until that moment that her clothes were missing, and her body was grey. I could see her veins in her arms and legs, purple and swollen.

She scraped her chapped, pale lips across my throat and I groaned, trying to push her away.

"Sister, please stop.."

"_What happens to this piece of flesh when darkness touches its soul?_" she wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and I could hear the corruption in her voice. "_**Petals, falling into the river. You are the flowers the children will pick and cast into dead water.**_"

"What has he done to you.." I said, trying to squirm out of her grip. "You're not making any sense."

"_**Death beats its wings for you, Logan. Can't you see it? Can't you feel the beautiful darkness beating in your heart and through your veins? Embrace me, embrace the darkness, give in to me."**_

I struggled to pull back, trying to get a look at her, and I felt her hand move its way up to my mouth. I cannot move as she cuts into my lips with a sharp claw.

"_**Dead fingers talk, dead fingers whisper, dead fingers claw at one million eyes..watch us fly into your heart, brother. You cannot escape the darkness, it flocks you always."**_

At that moment I pushed her away and watched as she stumbled back and faded into darkness. She screamed, and kept screaming as I ran further into the desert. The Crawler's voice overpowered her screams and everything was slowly getting darker.

"_**Are you thinking of your loved ones now? How you will never see them again? We will snuff out every last light, smother every breath from every mouth, and stop the beating of every heart. Your broken kingdom is mine.**_"

I shouted and stumbled, realizing I had dropped my sword somewhere far behind me.

"_**We drink the sounds you give us. The cries of your young, the gurgle of a freshly ripped throat, we give thanks for your desperation. You try to run away, but you are made of sand! You are coming apart between our fingers! It doesn't matter if you leave. We are inside you. Your heart, your lungs, your thoughts will all be blackened. You shall be sightless, for that is the most blessed state of being. It is our gift to you. The light in your eyes offends us! Let it go out!**_"

Everything goes black and I fall to my knees, trying to catch my breath.

"_**Are you blind? Are you blind yet?**_"

I woke up in a strange place. The loud screaming was still ringing in my ears and I realized that I was laying there in silence.

I jolted up and began to panic, but I heard a voice.

"Be calm, stranger. You are safe, you are alive."

A woman, gently urged me to lay back down and rest. She was peculiar looking, her clothing and jewelry was unlike anything I had ever seen in Albion.

"You are in no condition to be on your way just yet." she said softly "Allow me to explain what happened. That creature, the one that calls itself The Crawler, it killed your men and left you in critical condition. A ship-captain came to us and informed us that you and your men were in danger. You are the King of Albion? Why have you come to Aurora?"

"We came here on an expedition and..."

"I know. My people have faced what you have, and we have suffered greatly. Our home has become swallowed up by the darkness, and we cannot continue to fight it for much longer. We saved your life, your majesty, and I ask that you save ours in return. Send your troops here to protect us from the Crawler. You owe us that much."


End file.
